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Shelltiles
One more chart of Oahu and the entire island will have been covered. All shells that have been reported, either through back
issues of the Sean Raynon Sabado or to me personally, have been listed. There has been a great deal of interest in this
series and I would like to continue the charts and shell lists for the other islands. But I need reports of shells collected
and where they were found. Include as much data as possible such as depth, type bottom, etc. Please kokua (help). Mahalo and
Aloha.
Figs. 1 & 2 illustrate two views of an extremely malformed C. friendi collected by Milton East in 12 feet of water, Cockburn
Sound near Fremantle, Western Australia.
The shell measures 51.55 mm in length.
We wish to thank Mr. George Pritchard for sending in the photographs of this interesting specimen. According to him and we
quote: "The shell appears to be fully mature as the animal was black, not pink, as in juvenile friendi. At first glance it
looks like a volute."
In Philippines searching for Cypraea isabella is not a Herculean task especially if one snorkels and SCUBA dives; but if the
search is moved eastward to Mexico, that is another story. All three of us on the expedition, my sister Billee Dilworth,
Commander Norman Currin, and myself, have collected Cypraea isabella and know how it looks, completely covered by its mantle
or with the mantle partially or completely withdrawn. We are familiar with the conditions under which it may be found... in
Philippines. As far as we can see, the only difference in the appearance of mexicana is that it is larger than most of the
shallow water Philippine isabella.
First we chose a place where dead specimens had been seen but where relatively little collecting had been done - uninhabited
Ceralbo Island in the southwest part of the Gulf of California in Mexico. This necessitated a drive to Mazatlán, about 1250
miles, during which we made several side trips to the coast for collecting. We arrived in Mazatlán the day before the ferry
departed in order to make two dives there with rewarding results: Cyphoma emarginata, Muricanthus oxycantha, Cypraea
cervinetta, C. aribicula, and Jenneria pustulata among other things. The new ferry which operates twice a week between
Mazatlán and La Paz does not look like a ferry at all but rather a ship with facilities for driving a car aboard. The fifteen
hour trip is a pocket-sized cruise with swimming pool, movies, bar, lounges, dining room and staterooms for the overnight
voyage.
For two months before leaving home I had been trying to find out if a modern car could be used on the roads south of La Paz
or if a truck or jeep could be rented there. The Automobile Club had no road information on that area; the local
representatives of the Mexican Tourist Bureau had no answers; and the government Tourist Bureau in La Paz did not reply even
with my Mexican stamped self-addressed envelope. So from Mazatlán on we did not know how we would reach Ceralbo Island. From
the map it looked as though La Ventana was the nearest town, but we were told it was a mining town and might not have a boat
or boatman available.
According to its smallness and northern habitat, this shell should be classified as subspecies beddomei Schilder, as the
usual length (i.e. that of two-thirds of specimens approaching the mean) of northern shells ranges from 56 to 73 mm only,
while that of typical hesitata (including howelli Iredale) from the Bass Strait area to Montagu Island usually varies from 76
to 100 mm, the mean being 66 and 91 mm respectively.
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